India : Corona virus and My Concern | Harison Xavier

An ordinary citizen's concern

                    May 12th 2020, as usual I was checking the corona virus infection cases worldwide in Worldometer website. I remember India was placed at 20th spot in March, India being highly populated with 1.3 billion people and having a high population density in major cities, I was happy. India is fighting Corona effectively. The lockdown is working. We are a model to the rest of the world. We took drastic measures early than most countries and we are on our way to defeat this new invisible enemy. I was proud and happy about India and its governance. 

It is not just the government or the healthcare professionals, Its us who are responsible for our success and failure. 

I remember a story I read a while ago, the story was about a driving instructor teaching his clients and giving them two rules before starting the training. He said " 

"When driving on the road, if you keep in mind two things 99% of accidents can be avoided."  He continued " One : Anyone who drives on the road should drive a vehicle thinking all pedestrians are insane." 
"Two: We should drive a vehicle thinking rest of all drivers do not know the traffic rules." 

Yes, I thought to myself, how true. These two rules are perfect for Indian roads. These are the rules every Indian should keep in mind while driving. The reason I mentioned this story is because, when I go out to buy essentials, everyone is wearing a mask when I look around. But they are all dressed differently, Some were wearing masks to secure their jaws and beard. Others wear the mask as if the virus will runway if you start talking, they lower the mask when they want to speak something and then if they are not speaking the will adjust it back.  

I stress it again, It is not just the government, It is us who should take responsibility to control the pandemic in our country. Everyday I read the news to check the status of our country, in recent few weeks I saw that there was surge in new covid 19 cases. I did a research on the reason why there is a surge. The research was not difficult. The answer I found was " People just don't care". Even though the government and healthcare have given strict guidelines there are always a good amount of people who thinks they are stronger than the government and the virus. " It will not affect me!, I am different! I am a pure vegetarian, I am non vegetarian, I am a religious person, God will save me and the reasons goes on. 

There will always be someone who thinks they are above all. Unless and until they change their attitude we cannot bring down this enemy.

Below are screen shots of Corona cases I shared with my friends in the group. There was a sudden jump to 14 th position from 16 th on May 7th 2020. I shared my thoughts with my friends and they had few points to say.  People  who are under quarantine are breaking the rules, they are moving out of their house freely, due to the fear of judgement most people do not inform anyone about their case and they only get admitted once the symptoms get severe. The heath care works mostly in north India are raising concern regarding the unsafe working conditions. And the list goes on. 

May 7th 2020

We have gone wrong somewhere

May 12th we are right next to China, at 12 position, and of course we are 1.3 billion people and 70000 + cases is not a big deal, says the "Expert Panel  from so and so". I still believe that the people who are affected do have a right to heath care and back to normal life and it is not " not a big deal" by the expert panel. We must look into this cases immediately. Why are the cases still increasing even after almost 2 month lockdown? 

Why are people still on the streets without any safety precautions? 

 How can we bring down the number faster and effectively  without another outbreak? 

May 12th 2020

I remember back in January from a speech given by an " expert ", he said there is nothing to worry about Corona. We are all safe, there has been only 7000 deaths all over the world. Also he mentioned that 7000 people die everyday due to starvation. So corona is not big deal.  Now he is not to be seen. I wonder what is his comments now? The world have gone into chaos and now we are fighting back for survival. 

I will be updating this post in coming days, Will India reach number one spot? I pray to God that it won't. Hope we will find a cure of the virus soon. 

India Overtakes China

Updated On May 16th. 

I was predicting this will never happen, India announced lock down early in time and I was was under the impression that we are either extremely lucky or intelligent. I never though we will be going above china in number of confirmed Covid 19 cases. 

May 16th 2020 

Few reasons that I believe the reason for the spread even after lockdown. 

1. We forgot the poor

We should have given consideration for the poor people in our country, these are the people who do not have the luxury of stop working a single day. Additionally they do not have the luxury of social distancing, these people live in the most densely populated slums or colonies. 

What we could have done for them? 

Arrange community kitchen for the poor and needy, with strict social distancing protocol. 

Run tests and isolate people who shows symptoms with the govt help. 

2. Failed controlling the crowd.  

No matter what there will always be idiots on the street who believe he is not vulnerable.
Allow only people who have an emergency with proper safety measures. 

 Strict policing measure should be used against these people who violate these rules. If possible use the army to bring discipline.  

3. Less informed

Even in some states people still shows ignorance towards the news of Covid in India. They still go out without any safety. Some people don't even know what is happening even after 2 months. 

News, information and education regarding Covid 19 should be available to the each and every one of the poor and uneducated people. To spread the news and inform then about these cases social media could be used extensively and with creativity. People may have a hate toward news so with some creative methods social media platforms like Facebook, tik-tok could be used to inform people on Covid 19. If the videos are creative, it will reach more people. 

4. Negative attitude towards the patient

I noticed a stigma among the public people, towards patients who report Covid 19. The healthy people showed  hatred and isolated them even after they are healthy towards these patients. This made people hide their cases till the very end, making things even more complicated and higher risk of spreading. 

No more conclusion, looks like we are at the tip of an iceberg, updating in coming weeks.